NEW DELHI, Feb 3: Russia has not received any statements from India about stopping Russian oil purchases, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
Mr Peskov also said Russia intended to continue to develop its relations with India in every possible way, according to Russian media reports. His comments came a day after the US President Donald Trump claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has “agreed to stop buying Russian Oil, and to buy much more from the United States and, potentially, Venezuela.”
“Moscow has not yet received any statements about India halting purchases of oil,” Peskov was quoted as saying by the Russian media.
In a post on Truth Social, Mr Trump, who spoke with Prime Minister Modi, on Monday announced that India and the U.S. agreed to a trade deal under which Washington will charge a reduced reciprocal tariff on Delhi, lowering it from 25% to 18%.
Mr Trump last year imposed 50% tariffs on India, among the highest in the world, including 25% levies for its purchases of Russian oil. India buys about 88% of its crude oil, which is converted into fuels like petrol and diesel, from overseas.
Russian oil made up hardly 0.2% of all crude oil that India imported till 2021. India, the world’s third-largest oil importer, became the largest buyer of discounted Russian crude after Western countries shunned Moscow following its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
India’s import of Russian crude oil dropped to around 1.1 million barrels per day in the first three weeks of January, from an average of 1.21 million bpd in the previous month and over 2 million bpd imports in mid-2025, sources said.
Iraq is now supplying almost the same volumes as Russia, up from an average of 9,04,000 bpd in December 2025. Volumes from Saudi Arabia too have risen to 9,24,000 bpd in January, from 7,10,000 bpd in December and lows of 5,39,000 bpd in April 2025.
(Manas Dasgupta)
